French April Inflation Higher Than Expected at Record 5.4 Percent

French April Inflation Higher Than Expected at Record 5.4 Percent
A customer shops for vegetables at a Naturalia organic foods grocery store operated by Casino Group, following the outbreak of the COVID-19, in Bretigny-sur-Orge, near Paris, on July 30, 2020. Benoit Tessier/Reuters
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PARIS—French inflation jumped to a record high in April, driven by surging energy prices, preliminary data showed on Friday, putting pressure on newly re-elected president Emmanuel Macron to enact anti-inflation measures promised during his campaign.

The INSEE statistics agency said consumer prices rose 0.5 percent in April, for an annual rate of 5.4 percent, the highest since France began using European Union methodology in the early 1990s. Inflation had been 5.1 percent in March.